Despite using the Iraq war as a backdrop, The Hurt Locker is a very different kind of war movie. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, the film is structured around an ensemble of relatively unknown actors and steers clear of the moralizing and politicizing that plagued similarly-themed war movies during the Bush administration. Jeremy Renner is Staff Sergeant William James, a soldier with the uncanny ability to dismantle and disable insurgent IEDs—bombs left on the side of the road by Iraqi insurgents. His dedication and skill is portrayed through his ignorance of the dangers surrounding him. His ability to ignore the threat of sniper attack, detonation triggered remotely, or civilian interference is treated as more of a peculiar disassociation with the world around him rather than a genuine commitment to keeping himself clear of harms way. His small team includes Sergeant JT Sanborn, underplayed to perfection by Anthony Mackie, and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty), who are both are simultaneously attracted to and repelled by William’s bravery and stupidity in the hostile territory.
Structured as a series of vignettes, Bigelow ratchets up the tension exponentially as each scenario poses more danger for William and his team. The film, written by former embedded journalist Mark Boal, at times seems episodic and runs 20 to 30 minutes too long, but it is Bigelow’s precise handling of the scenarios that keeps the film riveting and tense. We’ve seen enough war films in the last eight years to know all the standard clichés of setting a film in Iraq. There’s Jarhead, a tepid war-as-hell film that squandered its strong pedigree with a glib philosophizing, while others, like In the Valley of Elah moralized incessantly. With The Hurt Locker, politics is never discussed precisely because we never leave the soldiers’ point-of-view. It is their story that Bigelow and Boal dramatize, leaving the politics to filmmakers with an axe to grind. While the action sequences are terrific—the opening detonation of a roadside bomb has to be seen (and heard) to be believed—most of the action comes from the nail biting suspense that occurs every time Williams and his crew suit up for another mission.
In one particularly standout sequence, a group of soldiers is pinned down by sniper fire coming a hundred yards away in an open desert. The scene is a breathtaking use of careful editing, sound design, and pacing, but what elevates it from mere exercise is Bigelow’s patience and dedication to eschewing conventional war film clichés. There are no obvious heroic moments or patriotic acts of bravery, just soldiers pinned low to the ground and doing their job to fight back. The scene’s most enduring moment comes when William—his face covered in sand and rock—opens a juice box to give to his fellow soldier. It is only as the story progress that we begin to realize that William isn’t so much an arrogant soldier as he is a wounded family man in Iraq because it’s the only thing he knows and understands. In one great scene, William is in a shopping isle back in the U.S. (presumably before shipping out to Iraq) trying to pick out the right kind of cereal among an endless isle of boxes. The choice freezes him and Renner plays it with all the suburban terror that it no doubt brings. He seems much more relaxed and care-free inside a parked car with a thousand pounds of bombs in the truck. With several high-profile cameos, including David Morse, Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce and Evangeline Lilly, it will interesting to see how this film will play in theatres. The marketing has been nonexistent and the chances are the film won’t make a dent at the box office. That’s a shame because The Hurt Locker is one of the best war films of recent years.
Richard Saad
© Cinephile Magazine, 2009